Career Criminal Convicted In Four-Corners Crime Ring

11/20/2008

DENVER – Colorado Attorney General John Suthers today announced that Jaydee Russell, (DOB 8/14/67) of Bloomfield, New Mexico, has been convicted on four felony counts for his role in a crime ring which stole automobiles and heavy equipment in the Four Corners area during 2004 and 2005. More than twenty motor vehicles, valued at in excess of $300,000, were taken from both Colorado and New Mexico, and then traded for methamphetamine imported from Mexico.

A two-week trial in Durango led to today’s guilty verdicts. Russell was convicted of a violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, a Class 2 Felony; Aggravated Motor Vehicle Theft, a Class 3 Felony; Tampering with a Witness, a Class 4 Felony; and Conspiracy to Distribute a Schedule II Controlled Substance, a Class 3 Felony.

A Habitual Criminal hearing will be set shortly, which will be followed by a Sentencing Hearing in late January or early February, 2009. If the court finds Russell to be a habitual offender, he will be sentenced to three times the maximum penalty, or 72 years in total. If the sentences are levied consecutively, Russel could face 174 years in a state penitentiary.

The final defendant in this COCCA case, David Torrez, of Fruitland, NM, is set for a jury trial in mid-to-late January 2009 in Durango.